The Deployment Challenge: Technology vis-a-vis the Business Case
Although originally intended to be deployed in Unix, and while integration testing of the modules was underway, a business case was made for migrating the system to NT; this was performed prior to the prototype phase. The shift from Unix to NT saved maintenance hard dollars as well as simplified the skill set requirements necessary to perform system administration. It was decided that migration to NT was inevitable and that the earlier it was performed, the impact to the system’s user group would be minimized in as much as the user group was still in the pre-AM/FM/GIS mode of operation.
It was early in the project that everyone came to realize and appreciate the value of employing detailed specifications in dealing with outside parties (vendors) and the phased approach. Detailed, yet understandable specifications helped reduce the element of surprise for both the vendors and the NFG team, helping provide the needed mutual agreement on what was the desired deliverable and what the critical criteria were for acceptance. Given detailed specifications, the vendor could then intelligently quote a price with known deliverables and quality expectations, as well as a reasonable timeline. An early lesson we learned was that if concerns were openly communicated and looked upon as opportunities for solutions rather than problems to be endured, seemingly ugly issues were worked around. Simply put, in working through the specifications, get agreement to what is “black and white” and then explore a mutually acceptable and livable answer for the “gray”.
Given enough creativity and open-mindedness, both parties may just end up in a win-win situation. An example of this is where the conversion effort involved product of highly variable complexity. A sampling of jobs from the spectrum of complexity was worked to build some experience and helped refine the estimate for doing the work. Job-by-job authorization based on individual scopes quotes also provided a manageable approach to control workflow and spending, while offering the opportunity to not contract out a particular potential project segment if the cost just seemed too steep and not cost justified.
The phased approach entailed the gradual “easing in” of new functionality; the phases utilized by National Fuel were development, prototype, pilot and full implementation. The benefits are simple--one can test and tweak the newly delivered customized rulebase sofiware or conversion worksets on a limited basis, and if successful, expand the rollout. If the deliveries are “functionally-challenged,” the problems are limited in scope and are not spread or propagated throughout the entire system. To further compress the timeframe in which the newly designed system would become operational, National Fuel also used outside expertise to jump-start the conversion process.
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